A new method was developed for revealing of composite clusters of cis-elements in promoters of eukaryotic genes that are functionally related or coexpressed. A software system "ClusterScan" have been created that enables: (i) to train system on representative samples of promoters to reveal cis-elements that tend to cluster; (ii) to train system on a number of samples of functionally related promoters to identify functionally coupled transcription factors; (iii) to provide tools for searching of this clusters in genomic sequences to identify and functionally characterize regulatory regions in genome. A number of training samples of different functional and structural groups of promoters were analysed. Search for composite clusters in human chromosomes 21 and 22 reveals a number of interesting examples. Finally, a decision tree system was constructed to classify promoters of several functionally related gene groups. The decision tree system enables to identify new promoters and computationally predict their possible function.

Sheep chromosome 3 (Oar3) has the largest number of QTLs reported to be significantly associated with resistance to gastro-intestinal nematodes. This study aimed to identify single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) within candidate genes located in sheep chromosome 3 as well as genes involved in major immune pathways. A total of 41 SNPs were identified across 38 candidate genes in a panel of unrelated sheep and genotyped in 713 animals belonging to 22 breeds across Asia, Europe and South America. The variations and evolution of immune pathway genes were assessed in sheep populations across these macro-environmental regions that significantly differ in the diversity and load of pathogens. The mean minor allele frequency (MAF) did not vary between Asian and European sheep reflecting the absence of ascertainment bias. Phylogenetic analysis revealed two major clusters with most of South Asian, South East Asian and South West Asian breeds clustering together while European and South American sheep breeds clustered together distinctly. Analysis of molecular variance revealed strong phylogeographic structure at loci located in immune pathway genes, unlike microsatellite and genome wide SNP markers. To understand the influence of natural selection processes, SNP loci located in chromosome 3 were utilized to reconstruct haplotypes, the diversity of which showed significant deviations from selective neutrality. Reduced Median network of reconstructed haplotypes showed balancing selection in force at these loci. Preliminary association of SNP genotypes with phenotypes recorded 42 days post challenge revealed significant differences (P,0.05) in fecal egg count, body weight change and packed cell volume at two, four and six SNP loci respectively. In conclusion, the present study reports strong phylogeographic structure and balancing selection operating at SNP loci located within immune pathway genes. Further, SNP loci identified in the study were found to have potential for future large scale association studies in naturally exposed sheep populations.

Arsenic is one of the most common metalloid contaminants in groundwater and it has both acute and chronic toxicity affecting multiple organs. Details of the mechanism of arsenic toxicity are still lacking and profile studies at metabolic level are very limited. Using gas chromatography coupled with mass spectroscopy (GC/MS), we first generated metabolomic profiles from the livers of arsenic-treated zebrafish and identified 34 significantly altered metabolite peaks as potential markers, including four prominent ones: cholic acid, glycylglycine, glycine and hypotaurine. Combined results from GC/MS, histological examination and pathway analyses suggested a series of alterations, including apoptosis, glycogenolysis, changes in amino acid metabolism and fatty acid composition, accumulation of bile acids and fats, and disturbance in glycolysis related energy metabolism. The alterations in glycolysis partially resemble Warburg effect commonly observed in many cancer cells. However, cellula...

Some but not all models of obsessive–compulsive disorder (OCD) emphasize the role of dysfunctional beliefs in the etiology and maintenance of this disorder. Clinical observations suggest that some OCD patients have prominent dysfunctional beliefs associated with their obsessions and compulsions, while other patients do not show this pattern. It is possible that dysfunctional beliefs play a role in only a

Hepatocarcinogenesis is under polygenic control. We analyzed gene expression patterns of dysplastic liver nodules (DNs) and hepatocellular carcinomas (HCCs) chemically-induced in F344 and BN rats, respectively susceptible and resistant to hepatocarcinogenesis. Expression profiles were performed by microarray and validated by quantitative RT-PCR and Western blot. Cluster analysis revealed two distinctive gene expression patterns, the first of which included normal liver of both strains and BN nodules, and the second one F344 nodules and HCC of both strains. We identified a signature predicting DN and HCC progression, characterized by highest expression of oncosuppressors Csmd1, Dmbt1, Dusp1, and Gnmt, in DNs, and Bhmt, Dmbt1, Dusp1, Gadd45g, Gnmt, Napsa, Pp2ca, and Ptpn13 in HCCs of resistant rats. Integrated gene expression data revealed highest expression of proliferation-related CTGF, c-MYC, and PCNA, and lowest expression of BHMT, DMBT1, DUSP1, GADD45g, and GNMT, in more aggressi...

The aim of the present study was to identify dominant goal orientation patterns in university students, define their motivational profiles and their reading strategy use. The results of cluster analysis showed that four groups of students could be differentiated according to their goal orientation: mastery, mastery-performance, performance-work-avoidance, and work-avoidance goal orientation groups. Groups with high mastery orientation had more adaptive motivational profile and more adequate reading strategy use than groups with high work-avoidance orientation.

This study examined the co-occurrence of childhood sexual abuse, adult sexual assault, intimate partner violence, and sexual harassment in a predominantly African American sample of 268 female veterans, randomly sampled from an urban Veterans Affairs hospital women's clinic. A combination of hierarchical and iterative cluster analysis was used to identify 4 patterns of women's lifetime experiences of violence co-occurrence. The 1st cluster experienced relatively low levels of all 4 forms of violence; the 2nd group, high levels of all 4 forms; the 3rd, sexual revictimization across the lifespan with adult sexual harassment; and the 4th, high intimate partner violence with sexual harassment. This cluster solution was validated in a theoretically driven model that examined the role of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) as a mediator of physical health symptomatology. Structural equation modeling analyses revealed that PTSD fully mediated the relationship between violence and physical health symptomatology. Consistent with a bio-psycho-immunologic theoretical model, PTSD levels more strongly predicted pain-related physical health symptoms compared to nonpain health problems. Implications for clinical interventions to prevent PTSD and to screen women for histories of violence in health care settings are discussed.

This study examines the relationship between a computerized neuropsychological assessment battery, the Automated Neuropsychological Assessment Metrics (ANAM) and a widely used ability measure, Woodcock-Johnson III Tests of Cognitive Ability (WJ-III). Results indicated substantial relationship between the ANAM throughput (accuracy/response time) scores and the WJ-III Cognitive Efficiency cluster. An unexpectedly strong relationship was evident between accuracy scores on the ANAM Logical Reasoning scale and the WJ-III General Intellectual Ability score, purporting to measure the g factor. The findings support the viability of the ANAM as a time- and cost-effective tool for appraisal of cognitive function.

The genetic structure of sheep reflects their domestication and subsequent formation into discrete breeds. Understanding genetic structure is essential for achieving genetic improvement through genome-wide association studies, genomic selection and the dissection of quantitative traits. After identifying the first genome-wide set of SNP for sheep, we report on levels of genetic variability both within and between a diverse sample of ovine populations. Then, using cluster analysis and the partitioning of genetic variation, we demonstrate sheep are characterised by weak phylogeographic structure, overlapping genetic similarity and generally low differentiation which is consistent with their short evolutionary history. The degree of population substructure was, however, sufficient to cluster individuals based on geographic origin and known breed history. Specifically, African and Asian populations clustered separately from breeds of European origin sampled from Australia, New Zealand, Europe and North America. Furthermore, we demonstrate the presence of stratification within some, but not all, ovine breeds. The results emphasize that careful documentation of genetic structure will be an essential prerequisite when mapping the genetic basis of complex traits. Furthermore, the identification of a subset of SNP able to assign individuals into broad groupings demonstrates even a small panel of markers may be suitable for applications such as traceability.

The transcriptomic diversity of cell types in the human body can be analysed in unprecedented detail using single cell (SC) technologies. Unsupervised clustering of SC transcriptomes, which is the default technique for defining cell types, is prone to group cells by technical, rather than biological, variation. Compared to de-novo (unsupervised) clustering, we demonstrate using multiple benchmarks that supervised clustering, which uses reference transcriptomes as a guide, is robust to batch effects and data quality artifacts. Here, we present RCA2, the first algorithm to combine reference projection (batch effect robustness) with graph-based clustering (scalability). In addition, RCA2 provides a user-friendly framework incorporating multiple commonly used downstream analysis modules. RCA2 also provides new reference panels for human and mouse and supports generation of custom panels. Furthermore, RCA2 facilitates cell type-specific QC, which is essential for accurate clustering of d...

We aimed to summarize and map the existing global population-based data on active trachoma and trichiasis. Detailed distribution maps of various infectious diseases have proved a valuable tool in their control. Such maps play an important role in assessing the magnitude of the problem, defining priority areas for control, monitoring changes, and advocacy. Until now, information on trachoma prevalence at within country levels has not been systematically collated, analysed and reported. We gathered the last 18 years' worth of reported data on active trachoma in children aged less than 10 years, and the last 25 years of reported trichiasis in adults aged 15 years and over from 139 population-based surveys in 33 countries. We collated these data into one database using the "district" (second administrative level) as the standard unit of reporting. We used Geographical Information Systems as a database and cartographic tool to generate a global map of the prevalence of trac...

Migraine is a common neurological episodic disorder with a female-to-male prevalence 3-to 4-fold higher, suggesting a possible X-linked genetic component. Our aims were to assess the role of common variants of gammaaminobutyric acid A receptor (GABA A R) genes, located in the X-chromosome, in migraine susceptibility and the possible interaction between them. An association study with 188 unrelated cases and 286 migraine-free controls age-and ethnic matched was performed. Twenty-three tagging SNPs were selected in three genes (GABRE, GABRA3 and GABRQ). Allelic, genotypic and haplotypic frequencies were compared between cases and controls. We also focused on gene-gene interactions. The AT genotype of rs3810651 of GABRQ gene was associated with an increased risk for migraine (OR: 4.07; 95% CI: 1.71-9.73, p=0.002), while the CT genotype of rs3902802 (OR: 0.41; 95% CI: 0.21-0.78, p=0.006) and GA genotype of rs2131190 of GABRA3 gene (OR: 0.53; 95% CI: 0.32-0.88, p=0.013) seem to be protective factors. All associations were found in the female group and maintained significance after Bonferroni correction. We also found three nominal associations in the allelic analyses although there were no significant results in the haplotypic analyses. Strikingly, we found strong interactions between six SNPs encoding for different subunits of GABA A R, all significant after permutation correction. To our knowledge, we show for the first time, the putative involvement of polymorphisms in GABA A R genes in migraine susceptibility and more importantly we unraveled a role for novel gene-gene interactions opening new perspectives for the development of more effective treatments.

One possible approach to cluster analysis is the mixture maximum likelihood method, in which the data to be clustered are assumed to come from a finite mixture of populations. The method has been well developed, and much used, for the case of multivariate normal populations. Practical applications, however, often involve mixtures of categorical and continuous variables. Everitt (1988) and Everitt and Merette (1990) recently extended the normal model to deal with such data by incorporating the use of thresholds for the categorical variables. The computations involved in this model are so extensive, however, that it is only feasible for data containing very few categorical variables. In the present paper we consider an alternative model, known as the homogeneous Conditional Gaussian model in graphical modelling and as the location model in discriminant analysis. We extend this model to the finite mixture situation, obtain maximum likelihood estimates for the population parameters, and show that computation is feasible for an arbitrary number of variables. Some data sets are clustered by this method, and a small simulation study demonstrates characteristics of its performance.

The objective of this work was to evaluate the potential of Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) in the characterization and discrimination between immature and mature or ripe coffee beans. Arabica coffee beans were submitted to FTIR analysis by reflectance readings employing attenuated total reflectance (ATR) and diffuse reflectance (DR) accessories. The obtained spectra were similar, but in general higher absorbance values were observed for nondefective beans in comparison to immature ones. Multivariate statistical analysis (principal component analysis, PCA, and agglomerative hierarchical clustering, AHC) was performed in order to verify the possibility of discrimination between immature and mature coffee samples. A clear separation between immature and mature coffees was observed based on AHC and PCA analyses of the normalized spectra obtained by employing both ATR and DR accessories. Linear discriminant analysis was employed for developing classification models, with recognition and prediction abilities of 100%. Such results showed that FTIR analysis presents potential for the development of a simple routine methodology for separation of immature and mature coffee beans.

This paper presents the deep neural networks to classification of children with voice impairments from speech signals. In the analysis of speech signals, 6,373 static acoustic features are extracted from many kinds of low-level-descriptors and functionals. To reduce the variability of extracted features, two-dimensional normalizations are applied to smooth the interspeaker and inter-feature mismatch using the feature warping approach. Then, the feature selection is used to explore the discriminative and low-dimensional representation based on techniques of principal component analysis and linear discriminant analysis. In such representation, the robust features are obtained by eliminating noise features via subspace projection. Finally, the deep neural networks are adopted to classify the children with voice impairments. We conclude that deep neural networks with the proposed feature normalization and selection can significantly contribute to the robustness of recognition in practical application scenarios. We have achieved an UAR of 60.9% for the four-way diagnosis classification on the development set. This is a relative improvement of 16.2% to the official baseline by using our single system. I.

PCR primers targeting loci in the current Burkholderia cepacia complex multilocus sequence typing scheme were redesigned to (i) more reliably amplify these loci from B. cepacia complex species, (ii) amplify these same loci from additional Burkholderia species, and (iii) enable the use of a single primer set per locus for both amplification and DNA sequencing.

This paper discusses the application of an unsupervised text mining technique for the extraction of information from clinical records in Italian. The approach includes two steps. First of all, a metathesaurus is exploited together with natural language processing tools to extract the domain entities. Then, clustering is applied to explore relations between entity pairs. The results of a preliminary experiment, performed on the text extracted from 57 medical records containing more than 20,000 potential relations, show how the clustering should be based on the cosine similarity distance rather than the City Block or Hamming ones.

Discussion on plant genetic engineering has experienced increasing momentum with the introduction of Genetically Modified (GM) corn in Germany and other European countries. This paper determines the various groups of German farmers, their attitudes and expected decisions on the use of GM foods using cluster analysis of 370 German farm managers. The results of cluster analysis indicate five main farmer groups who differ in terms of certain demographic characteristics and attitudes towards GM adoption. The study proposes tailored communication and risk management as an important measure that can be used by the biotechnology advocates to improve the level of acceptance.

At academic medical centers, attending rounds (AR) serve to coordinate patient care and educate trainees, yet variably involve patients. To determine the impact of standardized bedside AR on patient satisfaction with rounds. Cluster randomized controlled trial. 500-bed urban, quaternary care hospital. 1200 patients admitted to the medicine service. Teams in the intervention arm received training to adhere to 5 AR practices: 1) pre-rounds huddle; 2) bedside rounds; 3) nurse integration; 4) real-time order entry; 5) whiteboard updates. Control arm teams continued usual rounding practices. Trained observers audited rounds to assess adherence to recommended AR practices and surveyed patients following AR. The primary outcome was patient satisfaction with AR. Secondary outcomes were perceived and actual AR duration, and attending and trainee satisfaction. We observed 241 (70.1%) and 264 (76.7%) AR in the intervention and control arms, respectively, which included 1855 and 1903 patient ro...

Reducing youth suicide in the United States (U.S.) is a national public health priority, and lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer or questioning (LGBTQ) youth are at elevated risk. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) endorses six evidence-based (EB) strategies that center on meeting the needs of LGBTQ youth in schools; however, fewer than 6 % of U.S. schools implement all of them. The proposed intervention model, "RLAS" (Implementing School Nursing Strategies to Reduce LGBTQ Adolescent Suicide), builds on the Exploration, Preparation, Implementation, and Sustainment (EPIS) conceptual framework and the Dynamic Adaptation Process (DAP) to implement EB strategies in U.S. high schools. The DAP accounts for the multilevel context of school settings and uses Implementation Resource Teams (IRTs) to facilitate appropriate expertise, advise on acceptable adaptations, and provide data feedback to make schools implementation ready and prepared to sustain ch...

New approaches are needed to enhance implementation of complex interventions for geriatric syndromes such as falls. To test whether a complexity science-based staff training intervention (CONNECT) promoting high-quality staff interactions improves the impact of an evidence-based falls quality improvement program (FALLS). Cluster-randomized trial in 24 nursing homes receiving either CONNECT followed by FALLS (intervention), or FALLS alone (control). Nursing home staff in all positions were asked to complete surveys at baseline, 3, 6, and 9 months. Medical records of residents with at least 1 fall in the 6-month pre- and postintervention windows (n = 1794) were abstracted for fall risk reduction measures, falls, and injurious falls. CONNECT taught staff to improve their connections with coworkers, increase information flow, and use cognitive diversity in problem solving. Intervention components included 2 classroom sessions, relationship mapping, and self-monitoring. FALLS provided in...

Previous research on children's conceptual and procedural understanding of fractions, and other arithmetic skills, has led to contradictory conclusions. Some research suggests that children learn conceptual knowledge before procedural knowledge, some suggests that they learn procedural knowledge before conceptual knowledge, and other research suggests that they learn conceptual knowledge and procedural knowledge in tandem. We propose that these contradictory findings may be explained by considering individual differences in the way that children combine conceptual and procedural knowledge. A total of 318 Grade 4 and 5 students in the United Kingdom (mean age ϭ 9.0 years) completed a measure of fractions understanding, which included subscales of conceptual and procedural knowledge. A cluster analysis identified 5 distinct clusters that differed from each other in terms of their relative success with conceptual and procedural problems. The existence of these clusters suggests that there may be more than one way in which children draw on conceptual and procedural knowledge. Some children rely more on procedural knowledge and others more on conceptual knowledge, but these differences may not be related to developmental processes. The children in the 5 clusters differed in their total fractions performance and in their understanding of intensive quantities. These differences suggest that children who rely on conceptual knowledge may have an advantage compared to those who rely more exclusively on procedural knowledge.

The results of a palaeoecological, biostratigraphical and palaeobiogeographical analysis of Jurassic ostracods from southern Tunisia are presented. The shallow to marginal marine deposits of Bajocian-Bathonian (Krachoua and Techout formations) and Callovian-?Oxfordian age (Tataouine Formation), which accumulated under predominantly warm humid climatic conditions, yielded diverse ostracod faunas from limnic, brackish and marine environments which have been analysed statistically. A qualitative cluster analysis yielded fourteen associations and two assemblages which are characterised by different percentages of marine, brackish and freshwater species. The distribution of the associations in the Middle Jurassic reflects temporal and spatial salinity gradients which are interpreted to reflect climatic variations (humid arid) and global eustatic sea level changes. In the Callovian the ostracods and macrofaunas probably also reflect minor relative sea level changes. In accordance with other biostratigraphical data the ostracods support a Bajocian~Bathonian age for the upper Krachoua and the lower Techout formations, and a Callovian age for the lower Tataouine Formation. The palaeobiogeographical relationships suggest faunal exchange between southern Tunisia and Europe (southern France, Sardinia, England) in the Bajocian-Bathonian, and an isolation of the south Tunisian ostracod faunas from the European faunas in the Callovian, probably due to the deepening of the central Western Tethys. Predominantly in the Bajocian-Bathonian but also in the Callovian brackish conditions resulted in an endemicity of the ostracod faunas. As a consequence of the eustatic sea level rise in the Callovian species from the eastern North Gondwana shelf (Israel, Jordan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia), respectively, the Ethiopian Province, invaded southern Tunisia. Palaeobiogeographically the ostracods from southern Tunisia are intermediate between the ostracods from the Arabic Northeast African region and Northwest Africa (Morocco).

The stone marten is a widely distributed mustelid in the Palaearctic region that exhibits variable habitat preferences in different parts of its range. The species is a Holocene immigrant from southwest Asia which, according to fossil remains, followed the expansion of the Neolithic farming cultures into Europe and possibly colonized the Iberian Peninsula during the Early Neolithic (ca. 7,000 years BP). However, the population genetic structure and historical biogeography of this generalist carnivore remains essentially unknown. In this study we have combined mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) sequencing (621 bp) and microsatellite genotyping (23 polymorphic markers) to infer the population genetic structure of the stone marten within the Iberian Peninsula. The mtDNA data revealed low haplotype and nucleotide diversities and a lack of phylogeographic structure, most likely due to a recent colonization of the Iberian Peninsula by a few mtDNA lineages during the Early Neolithic. The microsatel...

A sample-sequencing strategy combined with slot-blot hybridization and FISH was used to study the composition of the repetitive component of the sunflower genome. One thousand six hundred thirty-eight sequences for a total of 954,517 bp were analyzed. The fraction of sequences that can be classified as repetitive using computational and hybridization approaches amounts to 62% in total. Almost two thirds remain as yet uncharacterized in nature. Of those characterized, most belong to the gypsy superfamily of LTR-retrotransposons. Unlike in other species, where single families can account for large fractions of the genome, it appears that no transposon family has been amplified to very high levels in sunflower. All other known classes of transposable elements were also found. One family of unknown nature (contig 61) was the most repeated in the sunflower genome. The evolution of the repetitive component in the Helianthus genus and in other Asteraceae was studied by comparative analysis of the hybridization of total genomic DNAs from these species to the sunflower smallinsert library and compared to gene-based phylogeny. Very little similarity is observed between Helianthus species and two related Asteraceae species outside of the genus. Most repetitive elements are similar in annual and perennial Helianthus species indicating that sequence amplification largely predates such divergence. Gypsy-like elements are more represented in the annuals than in the perennials, while copia-like elements are similarly represented, attesting a different amplification history of the two superfamilies of LTR-retrotransposons in the Helianthus genus. Sequences from Helianthus annuus randomly sheared genomic DNA library and sequences of genes used for phylogenetic analyses are available at the URL: https://services.appliedgenomics.org/sequencesexport/26-Helianthus/.

Maternal undernutrition and low macro- and micronutrient intake and weight gain during pregnancy have been reported in Bangladesh. We aimed to determine the effects of lipid-based nutrient supplements for pregnant and lactating women (LNS-PL) on weight gain and midupper arm circumference (MUAC) during pregnancy. The Rang-Din Nutrition Study, a cluster-randomized effectiveness trial conducted in Bangladesh, enrolled 4011 pregnant women at ≤20 wk gestation who received either 60 mg Fe + 400 μg folic acid/d or 20 g LNS-PL/d (118 kcal) containing essential fatty acids and vitamins and minerals until delivery. At 36 wk gestation, women were interviewed at home and then attended a follow-up examination at local clinics (n = 2877), where anthropometric measurements were taken. No significant differences between intervention groups in maternal weight gain per week, low weight gain per week, or MUAC at 36 wk gestation were observed in the full sample. However, among multiparous women aged ≥2...

Purpose -This paper aims to identify and compare the nature of decentralization that has emerged in three important Asian societies after a decade of their involvement in the decentralization movement. Design/methodology/approach -Data from the first cycle of the program for international student assessment were analyzed to investigate educational decentralization in three Asian societies: Hong Kong, Japan, and Korea. Cluster analysis was used to reveal the nature and extent of decentralization of the schooling systems in the three societies. Findings -The results revealed four models of decentralization: highly centralized, school-driven, teacher-driven, and highly decentralized. Whilst the school-driven model was dominant in Hong Kong, indicating that the school itself is largely responsible for making school-related decisions, the centralized model was dominant in both Japan and Korea, indicating that authorities outside the school are largely responsible for making school-related decisions.

A number of races for loose smut disease of wheat, caused by Ustilago tritici, exist in western Canada, which causes significant economic losses on both durum (Triticum turgidum var. durum) and bread wheats (T. aestivum). The genetic relationships of molecular variability and virulence pattern among these races is unknown. A total of 85 isolates of 19 races of Ustilago tritici collected from durum and bread wheat were studied using molecular and virulence data. Eleven EcoRI and MseI primer-pair combinations were used for an amplified fragment length polymorphism analysis, and a total of 52 polymorphic fragments were generated. Virulence data from the wheat loose smut differential set were used for cluster analysis using the unweighted pair group method with arithmetic averages method. Cluster analysis from molecular and virulence data showed that races collected from durum wheat cultivars were grouped separately from those races collected from bread wheat. Most races were virulent only on either bread wheat or durum wheat, but race T39 has complex virulence and can infect both species. The study revealed that molecular diversity in U. tritici can be associated with virulence patterns. Further, grouping of races based on molecular data suggested that new races emerge from existing races by recombining virulence.

Lake trout Salvelinus namaycush representing three year-classes (1988, 1989, and 1 990) of gametes collected from adults captured in Seneca Lake, New York, were examined for allelic variation at 1 8 polymorphic loci and for mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) haplotype variation; mtDNA was digested with the four restriction endonucleases Ava I, BamH I, Hinfl, and Tag I. Analysis of allelic frequencies among these three year-classes of the Seneca strain and a previously analyzed collection (1983 year-class, also a wild egg taken from Seneca Lake) indicated temporal heterogeneity (P < 0.01) at three loci: two for proline dipeptidase (PEPD-1,2*) and one for malic enzyme (NADP+) (mMEP-1*). However, cluster analysis of genetic distances demonstrated that all four Seneca Lake samples exhibited a much lower level of differentiation than observed among other strains stocked into Lake Ontario. Mitochondria! DNA haplotype frequencies were not significantly different among the 1988, 1989, and 1990 year-class samples, which supported the conclusion of genetic similarity among Seneca strain samples. Allozyme differences among Seneca collections did not significantly affect estimates by mixed-stock analysis (MSA) of parental strain contributions to a mixture of wild fry from Lake Ontario. Based on these results, data from the four year-classes could be pooled and used as Seneca strain baseline data for future MSA estimates.

We present the Nearest Sub-class Classifier (NSC), which is a classification algorithm that unifies the flexibility of the nearest neighbor classifier with the robustness of the nearest mean classifier. The algorithm is based on the Maximum Variance Cluster algorithm and as such it belongs to the class of prototype-based classifiers. The variance constraint parameter of the cluster algorithm serves to regularise the classifier, that is, to prevent overfitting. With a low variance constraint value the classifier turns into the nearest neighbor classifier and with a high variance parameter it becomes the nearest mean classifier with the respective properties. In other words, the number of prototypes ranges from the whole training set to only one per class. In the experiments, we compared the NSC with regard to its performance and data set compression ratio to several other prototype-based methods. On several data sets the NSC performed similarly to the k-nearest neighbor classifier, which is a well-established classifier in many domains. Also concerning storage requirements and classification speed, the NSC has favorable properties, so it gives a good compromise between classification performance and efficiency.

There is a vast demand for in vivo methods for the detection of skin cancer, one of the most dangerous skin lesions. Use of near infrared Fourier transform (NIR-FT)-Raman spectroscopy virtually eliminates the fluorescence of the normal cell constituents and provides a signal to noise ratio, r SN , large enough to successfully evaluate the spectra using chemometric methods. A novel fiber optic probe for NIR-FT-Raman spectroscopy was used, which allows sterilization and the prevention of hazards due to laser radiation and makes in vivo measurements possible. The Raman spectra of normal skin are dominated by the connective tissue, mainly collagen type I. The Raman spectra of skin with inflammatory diseases show an increased lipid and water content. Kaposi sarcomas show typical features of tumors mainly in the amide III and the protein backbone range. A clear separation of Raman spectra of normal skin from those of benign and malignant neoplasms can be achieved by cluster analysis. However, the unequivocal diagnosis of skin cancer needs investigation of a larger number of more defined skin samples, taking into consideration the concurrent appearance of different skin symptoms like coloring and inflammation. cal fibers are used in Raman endoscopes [14] for measurement.

Genes involved in the reproductive isolation are particularly useful as molecular markers in speciation studies. Lutzomyia longipalpis (Diptera: Psychodidae: Phlebotominae), a putative species complex, is a vector of visceral leishmaniasis in Latin America. We isolated from this species a fragment homologous to cacophony, a Drosophila gene that encodes features of the lovesong, an acoustic signal that is important in the sexual isolation of closely related species and known to vary considerably among L. longipalpis putative siblings species. Using an intron of the sandfly cacophony as a marker, we analyzed the molecular variation and sequence divergence among five populations of L. longipalpis from Brazil, three allopatric (Jacobina, Lapinha and Natal) and two putative sympatric sibling species from the locality of Sobral. A high level of polymorphism was found and analysis of the data indicates that very little gene flow is occurring among the populations of Jacobina, Lapinha, and Natal. A high level of differentiation was also observed between the two putative sympatric species of Sobral, one of which seems to be the same sibling species found in Natal, while the other is somewhat more related to Jacobina and Lapinha. However, the amount of estimated gene flow among the Sobral siblings is about seven times higher than the previously estimated for period, another lovesong gene, perhaps indicating that introgression might be affecting cacophony more than period. The results suggest that L. longipalpis is not a single species in Brazil, but it is yet not clear whether the different populations studied deserve species status rather than representing an incipient speciation process.

High-altitude populations using biofuels for household energy may be at health risk due to a combination of altitudinal stress and indoor exposures to biomass smoke. In this article, the authors measure indoor and outdoor breathing level concentrations of PM 2.5 and CO during periods of meal preparation in a convenience sample of homes above 3000 m in Cusco, Peru. From July 10 to 21, 2005, 237 measurements were taken during a pilot study at 41 residences. Results show the highest levels of PM 2.5 and CO occurred during the early morning in the kitchen when dung and wood were used. Additionally, findings suggest that residential biomass fuel combustion in Cusco results in elevated indoor PM 2.5 and CO exposure levels that are of potential human health concern, an issue that may be exacerbated by the physiological impact of living in a high-altitude environment.